If you turned on your TV this week, you could be forgiven for thinking it was 1994.

From NBC to CNN, Fox News to ABC, the wretched face of O.J. Simpson kept appearing like a smirking ghoul, just as it did 20 years ago when he was charged with killing ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman.

From “Where Are They Now?” segments to “new investigations” in a case that’s been analyzed more than the Zodiac Killer and Lindbergh Kidnapping combined, the coverage this week was by turns sombre, nostalgic, morbid, cloying and a little too eager to make a little too much of the lunacy that was the O.J. Simpson saga.

“What did we learn?” was asked repeatedly, as traditional media offered up stories that were ignored by social media and younger consumers who wouldn’t know a Kato Kaelin from a Faye Resnick.

This is what we do on anniversaries. We look back. We try to make sense of events that altered the cultural trajectory. But on the 20th anniversary of the gruesome murders, when we look back at the surreal car chase and the so-called Trial of the Century, what we mostly learn is that all of this is too depressing to remember.

“We are witnessing tonight a modern tragedy and drama of Shakespearean proportion being played out live on television,” said NBC’s Tom Brokaw on June 17, 1994, as viewers watched aerial shots of a white Bronco slowly drifting across the highway with LAPD cruisers in feeble pursuit.

As the Bronco rolled past gawkers on grassy shoulders and concrete overpasses — strangers hoisting signs and waving and cheering as if they were at a Disney parade — we learned human decency is no match for the lure of celebrity.

Here was a man sitting in the back of an SUV pointing a gun at his own head. Here was a man accused of stabbing and slashing his ex-wife with such barbaric rage, Brown was nearly decapitated when discovered on the stone walkway to her condo, where her two young children were sleeping inside.

“We love you, OJ!” read one of the placards.

Five years after the debut of Cops and two years before the arrival of Judge Judy, the Trial of the Century also taught us a few things about the legal system in America. If you allow cameras into a courtroom during a high-profile criminal trial, the scales of justice will be tipped by the popcorn spectacle.

Looking back, so much of what happened inside Judge Lance Ito’s courtroom doesn’t make a lick of sense. Why did the jury never hear from certain witnesses, including one woman who allegedly encountered Simpson near Brown’s condo around the time of the murders and another man who spotted him furtively emptying contents of a gym bag into a trash can at the airport hours later? Why did the jury never hear the cell phone conversation Simpson had with detective Tom Lange while sitting inside the Bronco next to a fake beard and $8,000 in cash, a chat that in tone and substance suggested guilt?

Then there was the most theatrical moment from this grim cinéma vérité, a clip that was looped this week like it was the winning touchdown from a Super Bowl game.

Why was Simpson allowed to try on those leather gloves after they had been soaked with blood, tested in a lab and frozen and unfrozen several times? Did Ito not realize leather shrinks? As Simpson struggled to yank on the gloves, his latex-clad fingers outstretched in claw formation, his face etched with faux resolve, we learned that cheap drama suffocates logic and common sense.

For more than a year, the lessons never stopped.

When commentators fixated on the hair, makeup and wardrobe of prosecutor Marcia Clark, we learned that, no matter the profession, sexism is alive and well. When viewers — and, apparently, the jury — zoned out during critical DNA testimony and wanted instead to focus on racism, we learned that cold science can’t compete with hot-button social issues.

When Simpson was found not guilty and several key players later veered into the lucrative world of publishing and TV gigs, we learned this trial was ultimately about fame and money. Justice should be blind. But if you can afford a Dream Team of defense attorneys, it can also be deaf and dumb.

And so on the 20th anniversary, we can recall the flashbulb memories. Or we can look away from the lingering freak show and accept that, even two decades later, there’s not a lot to learn.